


a mixed-up criss-cross love

by asterbells



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Gen, Reveal, also adrien is dense af, now comes with a shiny reveal h a h, plagg deserves more cheese, so i don't know how to fluff or humor i'm sorr
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-07
Updated: 2015-11-19
Packaged: 2018-04-30 09:17:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5158418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/asterbells/pseuds/asterbells
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She's always so happy and energetic around others, but quiet and reserved around him.</p><p>A fic/art trade with <a href="http://charmpoints.tumblr.com/post/132607729748/trade-with-tei-gen-i-tried-doing-a-comic-but-it">charmpoints!</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	1. afraid to love in vain

**Author's Note:**

  * For [charmpoints](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=charmpoints).



> A fic/art trade with [charmpoints](http://charmpoints.tumblr.com/post/132607729748/trade-with-tei-gen-i-tried-doing-a-comic-but-it) and based on her ridiculously cute af comic! She requested Chat Noir and Marinette and I set it up based on [faith's](http://faith-xx-love.tumblr.com/post/131021692357/hc-where-marinettes-class-was-given-a-project-to) prompt!!
> 
> Also this ended up being like 90% build-up/setting and 10% actual Chat Noir and Marinette I'm so sorry orz
> 
> EDIT: I FORGOT TO FORMAT THE THING I FORGOT THE ITALICS WOW OK ALL FIXED NOW

* * *

 

_“Alright class, as you should all know, the group project has arrived—Oh stop that I did tell everyone about it at the start of the year. Don’t worry, so much, I’m sure everyone will find the topic of this project very enjoyable.”_

* * *

 

Marinette hadn’t been this excited since forever. Okay that’s probably a lie Marinette hadn’t been this excited since Gabriel Agreste chose her hat for Adrien to model.

A group project.

A group project with Alya.

A group project with Alya with Nino.

 

A group project with Alya with Nino with _Adrien_.

Marinette was very excited.

She giggled excitedly as Alya gives her an encouraging nudge. A group project. With Adrien.

_Eeeep!!_

“—dybug and Chat Noir!”

 

Wait what.

“Sorry Miss Bustier, but could you repeat what you just said?”

The literature teacher smiled as she turned to Marinette.

“I know we’re all excited about the project but do please pay attention long enough to actually hear the topic. Your project will be a comparative social study on literary and contemporary heroes, to this end you will all be choosing one of the books we’ve read in class and compare its ‘heroes’ to Paris’ very own heroes, Ladybug and Chat Noir.”

Oh.

Oh crap.

* * *

 

Adrien grinned as he dropped his bag and plopped onto his bed. With a loud humph, Plagg flew out in a grump to pester his human.

“What’s got _you_ all kissy-face today?”

Adrien shifted a bit so he could glare at his kwami, “ _Plagg_.”

“What?” The kwami scoffed, “You’re not normally this over the moon unless it’s over Ladybug.”

“Do you remember Marinette? My classmate? The one who helped out with The Evillustrator.”

Plagg stared at him for a moment before nodding his head, “Aah, the one who’s always tripping over herself? You got yourself a second lady crush there?”

“ _Plagg_.” Adrien sighed exasperatedly as he rolled over. “Don’t you think it’s weird how she never really talks to me? She’s always so happy and energetic with Alya and everyone else, but whenever I try to talk to her she always jumps or hides away from me and doesn’t say much. And it’s just me! Even to Chat Noir she was… she was cool and confident! She was stammering again when I talked to her afterwards… Did I do something wrong? Does she hate me?”

Plagg snorted, “I probably chose the densest boy in all of Paris.”

“ _Hey_ this is serious! She won’t talk to me at all as Adrien!”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it, I get it. I want my cheese though.”

Sighing, Adrien stood to go grab the camembert he had stored away in his drawer before tossing the tin towards Plagg.

“Yippee!! Ca! Mem! Bert!!”

Sitting down, Adrien sighed again as he swiveled around in his chair and thought back to his day.

* * *

 

_“So it looks like we’re a group!”_

__

_Adrien and Nino turned to see Alya grinning mischievously down at them while Marinette nervously smiled and waved at them._

__

_Nino grinned back, “So how are we gonna do this?”_

__

_“Well…” Alya tapped her chin. “Of all of us here, I’m the one who runs the only Ladyblog around and the only one who’s actually talked to both Ladybug and Chat Noir. Marinette also had Chat Noir as a bodyguard once so I don’t know about you but...”_

__

_“Alright, alright we got it geesh!” Nino grimaced, “Adrien and I’ll focus on the book and you guys get started on Ladybug and Chat Noir?”_

__

_As the three chattered on, dividing the workload, Adrien frowned as he saw how Marinette actively spoke with Nino and Alya as the attention was directed away from him. What did he do for her to dislike him so much?_

__

_Did he accidentally offend her? He knew she and Chloe didn’t get along much, was it a dislike by association?_

_So deep in his thoughts, he completely lost track of the other three’s conversation before Alya let out a sharp, “Aha! I got it!”_

__

_Turning his head to his red-headed classmate, he glanced questioningly at Nino and Marinette (who quickly avoided his gaze to stare at Alya, seriously what did he do?) before Alya started to explain._

__

_“Marinette was actually attacked by The Evillustrator before right?”_

__

_“Um actually—”_

__

_“Shh! Well! I’m willing to bet that either Ladybug or Chat Noir have seen my blog before and might check back a lot! We could post something that makes it seem like Marinette might be in danger and maybe one of them will come crashing in! Chat Noir protected her last time so maybe he wouldn’t mind coming in again to answer some of our questions!”_

__

_Adrien perked up, a chance! “That’s a great idea! If we could get an actual interview with one of them we’d definitely get a good grade on the project!”_

__

_Nino nodded his agreement before—_

_“Um! But what if—” Marinette looked around nervously, her eyes carefully not looking in Adrien’s direction, “I mean we could just ask for an interview inste—”_

__

_Alya shook her head, “No buts! It’s not the best way to get their attention I admit, but anything else probably isn’t going to work. They still might not show up so we’ll just see how it goes and work with whatever we can get in the meantime, good?”_

__

_Adrien tuned out of the conversation again as he grinned excitedly._

__

_A chance to talk to her as Chat Noir and not Adrien! A chance to see if he could see more of the sharp-minded girl who easily got them out of The Evillustrator’s trap, the confident girl who spoke clearly and energetically as she was being sought after by an akumatized person._

__

_He’d have to make sure to tell Ladybug he got this one covered, but if he was able to pull it off…_

 

* * *

 

Marinette sighed, “Tikki what am I going to do? I’m going to have to be so careful to make sure I don’t let anything slip…”

Tikki floated up to Marinette’s forehead to give her a small peck.

“It’ll be fine! Marinette met Ladybug once to tell her about The Evillustrator and only stayed with Chat Noir for a short period of time! You can just pretend like you don’t know anything about them!”

Groaning, Marinette laid her head down on the table as she stared mournfully at Tikki. Just as she was about to respond, Tikki let out a tiny shriek and zipped away into her pouch.

Marinette got only a tiny “ _Incoming Chat Noir_ ” before the silly kitty himself dropped into a crouch from the balcony.

“I’m here to protect you, my princess~” Chat Noir smirked flirtatiously at Marinette as he kissed her hand.

_Oh boy_.

He grinned as he proclaimed, “Now where is it? The akuma won’t see what hit them! Nothing get past my cat vision!”

Rolling her eyes, Marinette was about to retort before Chat Noir’s attention was directed to—

Oh god.

Chat peered at her monitor and table, “What’s this?”

“UMM! THAT’S!! YOU SEE!” _Why me why this why_ —

“Ohhh I see… You must be… a fan~” Chat brightened up as Marinette frantically tried to come up with—

“Of Gabriel Agreste’s work!”

What.

Oh. Oh yeah, right okay yeah yeah-

“Yes! Right! That’s exactly it umm you see—”

Marinette stuttered to a stop as a tension she hadn’t even noticed from him seem to be released. He turned back to her with the most breathtakingly _sincere_ smile and the softest eyes she had ever seen from him. “That’s good to know… that’s _really_ good to know Marinette.”

_Wow_ she never noticed how gentle Chat’s eyes could be.

Remembering herself, Marinette shook herself out of her stupid, remembering why he was here in the first place. “But enough about me! I’m not actually in danger from an akuma attack, we have a group project at school about you and Ladybug and Alya wanted to see if we could get you to come so we could interview you… I’m really sorry about this…” Marinette looked away guiltily. She of all people knew how taxing it was to be a superhero, much less a superhero with a secret identity and patrols to make. If there were always posts that faked SOS pleas…

She looked up when she heard a soft (so _soft_ ) chuckle. Chat Noir smiled at her as he laid another kiss on her hand. “No worries my princess, it’s good to know you’re safe. Ladybug actually called me earlier when she saw the post but realized she couldn’t make it. I’ll make sure to tell her so she doesn’t get worried m’kay?”

Her breath caught in her throat. “Chat—”

“Although I must say, answering your questions without anything in return on a false call for help is a bit too much hmm? Let’s see… how about this! For every question you ask I get to ask you one too! Since Ladybug isn’t here, you can be my Ladybug again!”

Marinette had to stop herself from rolling her eyes again before remembering herself, of course. “Oh of course, I can’t believe you’re going to actually answer my questions!!!”

* * *

 

“Is being a hero worth it with all the dangerous situations you can get into?”

“Mm, I gotta say it is. The villains you see are also victims you know? To be able to work with Ladybug to stop them and save them, as well as all the civilians is a really validating feeling. Behind this mask I can be who I really want to be, and it’s nice to be so appreciated and valued for it.”

* * *

 

“I’d ask what your favorite color is but I’m pretty sure I know what it is sooo…. favorite food?”

“You can ask me any question right now and you want to ask about my favorite food?”

“‘Course princess! I wanna know more about you. If you were curious mine is sushi! Salmon in particular!!”

“...Wow. You really are a cat.”

“ _Hey_. Salmon is great okay—”

“Okay okay I got it I got it. Hmm, my mom makes a really good lamb vermicelli stew!”

“Oh.. that sounds really nice..!”

“Chat Noir?”

“Anyways your turn to ask a question!”

* * *

 

“Is being a hero fun?”

“Yeup! I get to work with the beautiful Ladybug and also meet pretty people like you too!”

“Uhh-huh.”

* * *

 

“Do you have a crush on anyone?”

_**CRASH** _

* * *

 

Adrien released his transformation as soon as he made it back into his room. He threw (another) tin of camembert at Plagg as the small kwami bounced out of his ring. Plagg gleefully caught the tin and started in on his cheese.

“Ohoohoo!! The love of life! The stuff of the gods!”

Chuckling, Adrien went to prepare for bed as he left Plagg to his cheese.

Humming when he made his way back into his bedroom, he fell into bed as he grinned contentedly, thinking about the hours he spent with his classmate, learning about the most trivial and frivolous details about his classmate as they threw questions at each other back and forth. Even Marinette had joined in on the fun after she got through the questions she needed to for the project (ah, he hadn’t started on his part yet he’d have to get to work on that). As he thought back to his conversations with the pigtailed girl, he reflected on Marinette’s varying reactions and expressions to the things he said, the questions she answered.

She was much more perceptive than he thought, too, becoming noticeably softer and somber whenever he accidentally let even the tiniest, most minute consequence of his home life out in his answers.

Kind, he thought. It would be nice, he thinks, if they could really be friends. He’d have to make an effort to try to get closer to Marinette.

* * *

 

“Hey Plagg?”

“Hmm?”

“It’s nice to know Marinette doesn’t hate me.”

“HAH. Yeah she just has a massively huge—”

“Admiration of dad’s work! Can you believe it? She was probably just really shy because of that! Come to think of it she was really into designing the hat too!”

“....Oh, kid. I don’t get nearly enough camembert for this.”

 

* * *

 


	2. panic cord

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alya has an idea, Nino agrees, Marinette panics, Adrien panics, and somehow there's a reveal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Laughs a lot at the "might be a 2nd chapter" as I cry and change chapter count to 3 why this.
> 
> BUT HEY I FINALLY GOT TO FAITH'S PROMPT SO!!!!!! HELLO!!!!!! HERE YOU GO!!!!!!
> 
> Oh also I'm not sure what happened to the tenses in here but it's 3am so the only thing I can say is good night--

* * *

 

“I got it! Marinette, you’re Ladybug and Adrien you’re Chat Noir!”

Food is _not_ meant to go down the wrong tube, this is a fact she'll probably have to stress as Ladybug at one point so people do not do this.

Coughing through her chokes (she thinks she might hear Adrien choking too but her attention is more focused on her best-friend-who's-also-the-blogger-trying-to-figure-out-her-secret-identity), Marinette finally wheezes an incredulous, “Wh-what?!” out.

Alya beams, as she pulls out pictures of the two heroes, “It’ll be great! I always thought Adrien could pass for Chat Noir, you remember the pictures I showed you, right Marinette?” There’s a strangled choking noise from Adrien, “And then I thought, hey, how great would our presentation be if we had a Chat Noir presenting?! Of course we can’t leave out Ladybug, and Marinette you have the same hairstyle as her anyways! Two costumes and voila! We’ll have a Ladybug and Chat Noir as part of our presentation! How about it, what do you guys think?”

“Dude you’re totally right! They could totally pull this off!” Nino eagerly enthused, nodding his head at the vlogger.

Marinette’s still trying to smother down the last of her panic with the knowledge and relief that Alya _hasn’t_ figured out Ladybug’s real identity. “I- I don’t know Alya, I don’t think I’d be able to pull it off and, and I, uh, don’t want to make a fool of myself?”

Alya scoffs, “Don’t be silly Marinette, you’ll be fine! You don’t even have to make the costume yourself! Nowadays there are some seriously realistic Ladybug costumes out there that have all the spots in the right places and everything!” When. How. _Why_ , Marinette thinks— “And it’s not like we’re expecting you to be Ladybug herself—” ER— “Besides, Adrien will be there with you as Chat Noir!”

It’s a testament to how freaked out she is about _cosplaying_ _herself_ that she barely reacts to the thought of standing up in front of the class next to her crush, who, in the meantime, seems to have finally dislodged whatever it was in his throat to speak.

“U-Uh… A-Alya…?”

“Hm?”

“ _What pictures_.”

* * *

 

Marinette groaned as she collapsed on her bed, “Tikki what am I going to do?!”

 

Tikki popped out of her clutch as she perched herself on the bedpost, “What do you mean?”

 

Marinette rolled over to stare mournfully at her kwami, “The presentation! Dressing up as Ladybug!! Dressing up as me!!” She pouted when the kwami started to giggle, making a face as she glared at Tikki, “What’s so funny??! What if people connect the dots and figure me out!!?”

 

“You’ll be fine!!” Tikki drops onto Marinette’s forehead, “If you’re this worried about it, why did you agree?”

 

Groaning, Marinette turned her stare towards the ceiling, thinking back on how excited Alya was at the prospect of Marinette and Adrien cosplaying as the two heroes. “I don’t… she was just so eager and enthusiastic and I didn’t want to ruin that for her… You saw how over the moon she was when she found out Chat Noir actually visited me, right?” Over the moon was an understatement, Alya had been _beyond_ ecstatic, pressing Marinette for every single word she could remember, all the trivia tidbits Chat Noir had willingly given her.

 

She really needed to learn how to say no.

 

“And then Adrien was _looking_ at me and _talking_ to me and—” She’s not even sure of the exact words she used, but she somehow ended up telling Alya her plan was brilliant. You reap what you sow indeed.

 

Tikki giggled at her charge’s predicament, floating back up into her view, “Don’t worry about it! No one will recognize that Ladybug is Marinette! The glamour on the suit works both ways! If you want to be recognized as Marinette but not Ladybug, all you’d have to do is tweak a thing or two and you’ll be fine! The only one who’d be able to recognize you would be Chat Noir! If you don’t want to risk it you can just go and buy one of those costumes Alya was talking about! Unless you release your transformation right in front of them, no one should be able to recognize you!”

 

“Ughh…” Marinette closed her eyes, “I guess I’ll just buy a costume just to be safe… Chat Noir won’t be there but I _definitely_ don’t want to slip up as Ladybug in front of everyone…”

 

With one final stretch, she sat up and headed towards her desk, “I’ll have some time before patrol. The presentation isn’t until Friday, so I have still have tomorrow to go and get it, but in the meantime….” Marinette sighed.

 

Tikki bit down a laugh, “You have homework to do!”

 

Marinette groaned.

 

* * *

 

Adrien plopped into his chair, groaning as he dropped his head onto his table.

“What’s the matter kid?” Plagg asked (after gorging himself with cheese, damn it this glutton).

Adrien turned his head to the side to glare at the gluttonous kwami, “What do you think?! I have to dress up as Chat Noir for the presentation, I haven’t finished my portion of the book analysis, Marinette _still_ doesn’t look me in the eye, and _Alya apparently has pictures of me as Chat Noir_? But not really? Because she doesn’t know I’m Chat Noir? _How does that even work_. Ugh.”

This afternoon had been awful. After choking on air, he’d finally been able to compose himself enough to (try to) veto the idea of dressing up as Chat Noir, before Alya dropped her next photo ( _heh_ ) bomb. Adrien hopes his father never finds out about the, er, strangled croaking noise he made.

 

And Alya _still_ refused to show him, choosing instead to waggle her eyebrows at him.

 

Sometimes, he forgets that this is the girl who liveblogged her own abduction and proceeded to get indignant over _not_ being sacrificed.

 

He’s going to get ulcers over those pictures, he can feel it.

And Marinette. _Marinette_.

He had turned to the pigtailed girl after fruitless attempts to get the pictures from Alya, but was met with a (several, actually) squeak and stammers before the girl loudly declared the brilliance behind Alya’s plan.

He frowns at the thought. He really does want to be friends with Marinette as Adrien.

She’d been so vibrant, when talking to Chat Noir. She seemed to have taken off the sparkling hero lenses off too, speaking to him in a much more down-to-earth manner than when she worked with him that one time with Evillustrator.

He’d been trying to use this project as a way to talk to her more too, especially after learning more about her as Chat Noir. Everything was going so well, and at times it even felt like she forgot he was the son of her idol Gabriel Agreste when they were debating over their literary analyses, he’d even gotten a promise out of her to see her designs! But for some reason, all the progress he had made as Adrien was lost in the afternoon today.

Biting back another groan, he directed his attention back to Plagg, who, while still stuffing his face, was chortling over Adrien’s predicament.

“I don’t see what the problem is~ You even bought the costume already—”

“Alya _insisted_ —”

“You could just transform-”

“Marinette literally spent like, three hours with Chat Noir the other night there is _no_ way I’m going to go actually transformed so she can figure it out.”

“Details! Anyways you still have a few days to finish your work and that reporter girl would have confronted you already if she really knew~ Just eat some cheese and relax~” Plagg punctuateed his point by tossing another piece of camembert into his mouth. “Why bother worrying when you have camembert?”

Sighing, Adrien sat up as he turned to his computers. He had patrol later today with Ladybug that he can’t (won’t) miss so he’d have to get as much done as he could before leaving.

By the time he realizes that Plagg never addressed his concern about Marinette, he’s already Chat Noir and racing across rooftops to a rendezvous with his lady.

* * *

 

“I’M LATE I’M LATE!!”

Marinette frantically grabed her school bag as she raced out and into the streets, sprinting towards school.

Why is she always so unlucky if she’s Ladybug??? There’d been an akuma attack late yesterday afternoon that had lasted well into the night and by the time she got home, she was so tired she knocked out on her bed.

Thank god she'd managed to get her work done and presentation ready earlier during lunch break yesterday.

Wait.

Presentation.

_Presentation oh my god_.

Upon reaching school, Marinette raced into the nearest closet to _freak the heck out._

“Tikki _what do I do_??? I forgot to get a costume yesterday after the akuma attack _what am I going to do_?!”

Tikki’s head popped out of her clutch, “You don’t have a choice! Marinette you’ll have to transform!! Just make sure you take out the ribbons or something!!”

“Oh my god _oh my god_ — okay, okay, this is going to work it’ll be fine this is _going to work_ oh my _god_ — Spots on!!”

* * *

 

“EURGH, PLAGG WHAT IS THIS?”

Tossing away the costume box, Adrien turned to glare at the kwami, who, incidentally was flying _towards_ the box that smells like camembert that's been out for too long _damn it_ Plagg.

“Ohoho~ There it is! My beloved camembert!”

Frustrated, Adrien raked an agitated hand through his hair, “Plagg what were you _thinking_? Why would you put camembert in the costume I have to _wear_?!”

Plagg sniffed at him, “It’s a brilliant idea, there’re pockets in this costume just _asking_ to hold camembert!”

Groaning, Adrien let his head fall into his hands, “I can’t go to class in these now!! The entire class will stink of cheese by the end of our presentation! Plagg _why_?!”

Before the cat kwami could respond, Adrien started pacing through his room, perusing his options. He doesn’t have time to buy a new one, he woke up too late for that after last night’s akuma attack. Even if he leaves now, the shop he bought it from won't open until later on in the day and that really only leaves…

“Claws out!”

“ _But my cheese!_ ”

* * *

 

After 20 minutes of battling Chat Noir’s hair into something that resembled Adrien’s, Adrien made it to class with minutes to spare, dashing in as Chat Noir. Nino gave him a gleeful fist bump and a thumbs-up at how “real you look that’s wicked dude!” before sitting in his chair. Alya has her phone out and is ecstatically taking pictures with her phone (oh my god, please no—) and Marinette is—

Wait.

Where’s Marinette?

Alya paused her photo-spree when she notices the confusion and concern on his face. “Marinette’s going to be a bit late, she told me she overslept but should be here by the time we go up to present.”

Nodding his thanks, Adrien turned back to the front of the class right as Miss Bustier walked in, letting his thoughts drift as he steadfastly ignores the stares of his classmates around him.

No one’s _actually_ outed him yet so he should be fine… right?

* * *

 

They’ve only just walked up to the front of the classroom when Adrien is getting slightly worried over Marinette’s absence before the door flies open with an  _“I overslept and my costume wouldn’t cooperate I’m sorry I’m late!!”_

Adrien turns his head excitedly to the door, he’d been eager to see how well Marinette could pull off Ladybu—

What.

 

He blinks.

 

Blinks once.

 

Blinks twice.

 

Her pigtails are a tadbit higher than they normally are, she’s missing her characteristic red ribbons, and the yo-yo is on the wrong side, but _Ladybug has literally just burst into the room apologizing for being late._

He blinks again.

Once.

Twice.

 

He's trying to find an explanation (she's a designer she's _really good at these things_ ) and convince himself otherwise but there are seven levels of horror on Ladybug's ( _Marinette's_ ) face as she stares back at him, and the only thing that comes to mind is _oh_.

Oh _shit_.

 

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Literally ends the chapter the second I hit the prompt] UHM.
> 
> There's going to be a chapter 3 but I honestly have no idea what's going to happen (ok I kind of do but still) and I'm not even sure when this became a multichapter thing?? So??
> 
> come give me prompts and ideas at my [tumblr](http://tei-gen.tumblr.com) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/asterbell_s) ;u;//

**Author's Note:**

> There might be a 2nd chapter because I want to actually get to faith's prompt h AH....
> 
> Also Adrien is dense af okay I will fight on this. Marinette actually has the excuse that she wants to keep their identities a secret and Adrien just—
> 
> But please leave me a comment telling me how you felt about it! I don't know how to write things that aren't angst/hurt/comfort so I really don't know how this turned out orzz
> 
> hello [twitter](https://twitter.com/asterbell_s) or [tumblr](https://tei-gen.tumblr.com) uvu


End file.
